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About Me

I’ve been cooking as long as I can remember, professionally since I was 17. I love everything about food, and spent my life pursuing it. I was an apprentice pastry chef in Innsbruck Austria before I even went to cooking school. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America I became a full fledged Pastry Chef for a high end country club, and love it as I did there was so much more to be done, which eventually led me to catering. My catering company is just what I want it to be; I get to do something different everyday either in the kitchen or helping a bride design her ideal wedding or just researching new recipes out of my own imagination.
If you would like more details about my career, please the About page on my website www.SonomaCaterers.com.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Who doesn’t love a lazy Sunday morning, is there anything
more relaxing than brunch? Fifty one weeks of the year the answer is no, until
that one morning in May. Mother’s Day! You want to make that one person feel like a
queen, so the pressure is on. But brunch
can still be simple. Here are a few of
my favorite and easy recipes to add to your brunch menu.

Personal Frittatas

This is a great item that you can make with the kids; by
using a muffin pan each person can make their own. Kids might like to stay with ham and cheese,
but my favorite is asparagus and goat cheese.
This gets everyone a little involved in the kitchen and somehow that
personal sized item just adds a little something extra to the impression. Of course you could just make up a variety in
advance and have them ready to go; they hold in the refrigerator well and be
easily re-warmed in the microwave.

Allow each person to place their choice in one or two muffin
cups, but do not overfill, then add the egg mixture to each up cup to about ¾
full. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15
minutes till fluffy and firm. Remove
from the oven and allow to cool 5 minutes then turn out. You can return to the oven to keep them warm.

Corn Bread Waffles

with honey, mascarpone and strawberries

I’ve only recently been introduced to cornbread waffles, and
I think I may like them better than regular waffles. The use of cornmeal in these waffles adds a
great bit of texture and makes them a bit more sturdy. My sister came across them on Pinterest,
topped with chili; which I tried for dinner just the other night. But for brunch I’d recommend something a bit
more breakfast like strawberries and mascarpone. After the frittatas come out of the oven you
can turn the oven off and use it to hold the waffles.

Cornbread waffles

Yield
3-4 waffles

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

1Tbl baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup oil

Combine
the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients. You want it to be a bit on the thin side. Preheat the waffle iron to medium heat, and
place approximately ¾ cup of batter per waffle.

Strawberry Topping

4 cup sliced strawberries

1 orange zest and juice

2 Tbl honey

Mix together and allow the flavors to blend for 10 to 15
minutes.

Plus about ½ cup mascarpone, plus honey to drizzle. Simply spread each waffle with mascarpone, top
with strawberries and drizzle with honey.

Blueberry Sour Cream
Muffins

Yield 12-18 medium sized muffins

This is another great recipe to try with the kids. The use of oil in the recipe makes it very
quick to stir up, and can be used for muffins or coffee cake. In fact this is the recipe that I use with
the Rainbow Girls (the youth group I’m involved in) every year for their coffee
cake fundraiser; if you been fortunate to get one in the past you know how good
they are. They also freeze very well, so
keep it mind come the holidays in case you want to do some baking.

¾ cup flour

1 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup blue berries

If using frozen blueberries, toss in about 1 tablespoon of
flour to coat to prevent their color from bleeding into the batter.

Combine the eggs, sour cream and vegetable oil, and mix
until eggs are blended. Combine the dry ingredients,
then add the wet ingredients. Fold in
blue berries, and scoop into lined muffin cups.
Bake at 350 degree for 15 to 18 minutes.